Searching the Web

As you know, there is an abundance of information on the Internet.
The trick is to find the good stuff.
Use the steps and tips below to help you successfully navigate the web.

Step 1: Begin with the Research Organizer

this organizer comes from NEISD Library Research Tools page

Step 2: Use the NEISD Library Portal to Begin Your Search

If you are on a school computer, there may be a shortcut to the "Library Portal" on your desktop, or you can use the Library linkon the ISA website. If you are not at school, you can access the library databases through the Parent Portal.

Start with the EBSCOhost Research Databases

Choose the databases you think will be relevant to your search, and click continue (at the bottom of the screen).
Type in your search term(s) and hit search.
Notice what happens when you "Narrow Results" on the left side and "Limit your results" on the right side
Note that when you are looking at the results for a specific article/resource--the page where you see the "Abstract" describing the article, you can click the "Bookmark" button that looks like this

and then choose Diigo to bookmark it to your account.

Next try the Thompson Gale Power Search

This time, choose "Select All" products. Type in your search term(s) and hit search.
Limit your results to "fulltext" and see what happens when you change media typs using the tabs across the top (magazines, academic journals, etc.)
Ready to bookmark something?
Oops, the share button doesn't have a diigo option yet. (I've asked them to add it.)
Open your diigo page in the next tab of your Internet browser.
From your "My Library" view, find the "Add a bookmark" box on the right-hand side of the page.
Copy and past the URL into the box, click "Add" and then title, describe, tag, and share as usual.

Step 3: Try Different Search Engines

Use tabbed browsing to open multiple search engines at once.
Try the exact same search terms in each search engine and compare the results.

Most popular: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, AOL (powered by Google)

Cuil "ranks pages based on popularity and relevance"
Kartoo "draws a semantic map to see the topics and refine your search"

Dogpile searches Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask all at once
Metacrawler searches Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and About all at once
Clusty "searches top search engines, combines the results, and generates an ordered list based on comparative ranking"

Still Not Sure Which Search Engines to Use?

Go to Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need
Or use the NoodleQuest

Step 4: Use Advanced Search Strategies in Google

Add the following modifiers to limit your seach results.
Also, try the "Advanced Search" options.
After you've done a search, try clicking the "Show options" buttons at the top of the results list to limit by type, time, format, and/or content.
Once you find a good website in the list of results, you can click "similar" to find more like it.

Phrase Search	Include an exact phrase	Put quotation marks around your search terms Caution: using phrase search may cause you to miss some results by accident, for example, "Alexander Bell" will omit pages that contain "Alexander G. Bell"	"The Beatles" "George Washington"
Positive Terms	Search exactly as is	Add a plus (+) sign in front of the words you definitely want to include	Henry +VIII
Negative Terms	Terms you want to exclude	Add a minus (-) sign in front of the words related to the meaning you want to avoid	salsa -dance
OR Search	Find pages that include either of two search terms	Add an uppercase OR between the terms	Istanbul OR Constantinople
Domain Searches	Search within one specific website Specifiy a whole class of sites	Include the word "site" and a colon followed by the site name Or include the word "site" and a colon followed by the desired domain type	site:www.cnn.com site:nytimes.com site:.edu site:.gov
Fill in the Blanks	Find pages with information to fill in missing words	Use an asterisk (*) as a placeholder for any unknown terms	Shakespeare married * in *
Occurrences	Specify where your search term occurs on the page	Include the modifier "intitle" or "inurl" followed by a colon and the word you want to specify	intitle:literature inurl:wiki
Similar Words	Searches for similar words or synonyms to your search terms	Add a tilde (~) in front of the search term	search ~tips
File Search	Searches for specified file format	Include the modifier "filetype" followed by a colon and the abbreviation for the kind of file you want	filetype:pdf filetype:ppt
Linked Pages	Find pages that link to a specific site	Include the word "link" followed by a colon and the url of the site	link:npr.org
Related Search	Find web pages that are similar or related to the url	Include the word "related" followed by a colon and the url of the site	related:bbc.co.uk
Definition	Define a word or term	Use the word "define" followed by a colon and the word or term you want defined	define:epistemology

The chart above was created based on the Google resources listed at the bottom of this page.

Step 5: Evaluate the Websites You've Found

The online resources you use to answer your research question should be . . .
Timely
Relevant
Valid
Reliable
Credible

Website Evaluation Forms

from the NEISD Library Research Tools page

Web Page Evaluation Checklist from Berkeley
Web Site Evaluation Form from ReadWriteThink

Practice Evaluating Websites

Please visit one of the sites listed below and complete a Website Evaluation Form to analyze its validity, reliability, and credibility:
All About Explorers
Buy Dehydrated Water
Dihydrogen Monoxide
Dog Island: Free Forever
The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency
GenoChoice
MoonBeam Enterprises
Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Find the Owner or Publisher of a Website

There are several web services available for looking up the individual or organization responsible for posting a particular website:
Whois Source
Who Is Behind that Domain?
Whois.net Domain-Based Research Services
Whois Lookup

Google Search Resources

Google Web Search (the essentials)
Google Search: Basic Help
Google Search: More Help
Google Web Search - Classroom Lessons and Resources
Google Guide: Making Searching Even Easier (interactive tutorial, note the "cheat sheet" quick reference guide)